Short Cut!
This article is about the Popeye comic book story. For the O. G. Wotasnozzle story, see Short Cut! (Wotasnozzle story). This is a story from ''Popeye'', the original series published by Dell in 1948. The series was later renamed to Popeye the Sailor as it continued with other publishers. It has also been reprinted in other comic books by other publishers since then. __TOC__ 'Synopsis' The Sea Hag is Popeye and Olives's new neighbor. 'Plot' Popeye looks at the calendar and suddenly realizes that he is late for a lunch date scheduled for that day with Olive. He runs out of the house and decides to cut through the next-door neighbor's yard to save time. In his haste, he runs into a newly constructed fence and falls flat on his back. When he comes to his senses, he assumes the neighbor that just moved in built it without him noticing. He can see someone on the other side through a knot in the planks and moves in closer to peek in for a better look. At that point, a stream of water shoots through the hole and hits him square in the face, knocking him on the ground again. Popeye can hear laughing on the other side of the fence and his new neighbor, the Sea Hag, pops her head over the top to greet him. After exchanging a few short words, Popeye storms off, leaving the Sea Hag to continue her hysterical laughter. He calls Olive on the phone to cancel their lunch so he can take care of some business with the new lady next door. Olive reacts with her usual jealousy to 'her man' having any business with another woman. She races out the door to settle things with the new lady on her own terms, but is just as shocked as Popeye was to see the old witch. Popeye is disgusted about having the old hag living next to him but even more upset about losing a shortcut to his sweetie's house. He gets a shovel and starts to dig a tunnel under her yard for a new passage. The witch hears the digging underground and thinks it is gophers and grabs a pitchfork to stop the little critters from ruining her lawn. As she plunges the tool into the ground, she can hear a loud scream coming from the other side of her fence. After investigating, she realizes the gopher is really her one-eyed sailor friend. She uses a garden hose to flood the tunnel and flush him out. Now Popeye is out of ideas, so he consults with Wimpy, who suggests buying her property. Popeye sends Wimpy over to the witch's house with two money bags filled with one million dollars in cash. He returns shortly to inform Popeye that 'his Haggy' did take the money and made him eat it. Afterwards, the Sea Hag calls Popeye over to the fence to tell him that she is thrilled to have the sailor as a neighbor and she never wants to move. The evil hag's false kindness really makes him mad now. He grabs his shovel again and starts digging a trench along the fence. The Sea Hag assumes he is digging a moat, but she is not concerned and goes in her house to read a book, leaving him to wear himself out. Popeye finishes his trench around the old hag's property and then digs under it. When he is done, he eats a can of spinach to lift the entire yard and carries it down the street. He drops it off out in the middle of the desert and heads back home. Once back, he tells Olive that he moved the Sea Hag. However, she is furious about the big ditch, so he fills it with water and turns it into a swimming pool. Last Updated: / / Category:Comics